It takes a village… Considering the limits of a knowledge-based school-centered quality evaluation of citizenship education projects (original) (raw)
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JSSE - Journal of Social Science Education, 2005
In the 1980s and early 1990s, it became clear that establishing new democracies in Europe-and maintaining older ones-involves more than putting in place an amended constitution or hearing exhortations about democracy from a fresh set of leaders. Citizens needed to understand the workings of a democratic society and how individuals relate to each other and work together to affect change. These values needed to be reflected at levels ranging from the young person in school to the adult citizen, to the representations on local government bodies, to the national parliament. Schools have a particularly important role to play in socialization of the next generation's political values, especially in countries where the older generation came of age under a different system. Not only do schools provide students with in-class education related to politics, government, civic involvement and tolerance, but they can also provide opportunities for individuals to learn about democracy more directly and to contribute to community decisions through student councils or other groups. In these settings students have opportunities to experience themselves as empowered participants. In other words, the school can act simultaneously as an educational and a social institution, where both learning and formative processes occur among students. With appropriate policy support, schools can become laboratories for the practice of citizenship and the development of values important for maintaining democratic societies. This is a major premise on which the Education for Democratic Citizenship initiative depends in promoting its objectives of strengthening rights and responsibilities, empowerment, participation, a sense of social justice and respect for diversity (
2022
There is an exponential interest for initiatives concerning citizenship education activities in democracies, often designed in response to a decline in voter turnout and interest in politics. These activities are likely to — and often aim to — affect young people's political attitudes, which eventually influence individuals' long-term political engagement. It is established that citizenship education may change the levels of political interest, trust, and efficacy of the young people, depending on the type of content of the activity. However, the literature is still incomplete — and sometimes inconsistent — on the effects of an ever-increasing diversity of educational activities. Furthermore, little is known about the existence of differentiated effects of citizenship education activities depending on the characteristics of the pupils. A latent question is whether citizenship education can compensate young people's existing political inequalities. This dissertation analyzes the variation in young people's political attitudes during participation in the citizenship education activity "Jeunes & Politiek" organized between November 2018 and May 2019. This project involved 1200 pupils from 24 secondary schools (French- and Dutch-speaking) in the Brussels-Capital Region (quota based on the socio- economic characteristics of the schools). In the run-up to the Brussels regional elections in May 2019, these first-time voters pupils were asked to (1) learn about, (2) discuss with politicians, and (3) express a public opinion about a political issue assigned to them. A quasi- experimental panel design with a baseline group was set up to measure the effects of the "Jeunes & Politiek" activities before and after each phase of the activity, as well as one year after the end of the activity (5 waves in total). The evolutions of the participants' political attitudes were analyzed using linear mixed methods based on the different phases of the project — each mobilizing a distinct type of activity — as well as according to the characteristics of the individuals (socio-economic status, political predispositions, and perception of the educational environment). Results confirmed the existence of differentiated effects depending on the activities, with positive impacts on pupils' political interest and efficacy, while both positive and negative effects are found for pupils' political trust. The effects also vary according to participants' background and confirm that citizenship education may compensate for pupils' political inequalities.
In the literature high expectations on the effects of an open classroom climate and participatory school culture on civic and political attitudes can be found. In this paper we explore these effects at three levels: the individual, school and country level. Using data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (2009) and multilevel analyses, we find that an open classroom climate and participatory school culture indeed are positively associated with intended political participation. The teacher and principals perception of the classroom atmosphere, as well as the policy on civic education, on the other hand, were not related to the intention to participate. The analysis also shows that pupils with initially low levels of political interest profit more from an open classroom climate, than those who start high levels of interest.
Students\u27 participation in and valuing of civic engagement at school
2012
The IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study studied the ways in which young people in lower secondary schools are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a wide range of countries including Europe, Latin America, and the Asian-Pacific region. ICCS was the third IEA study designed to measure contexts and outcomes of civic and citizenship education and was linked to the 1999 IEA Civic Education Study (CIVED). A central aspect of the study was the assessment of student knowledge about a wide range of civic-related issues. ICCS gathered data from more than 140,000 Grade 8 (or equivalent) students in more than 5,300 schools from 38 countries. These student data were augmented by data from more than 62,000 teachers in those schools and by contextual data collected from school principals and the study’s national research centres. This paper uses data from ICCS 2009 to describe the level of reported student participation at school across participating countries as w...
2010
The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) studied the ways in which countries prepare their young people to undertake their roles as citizens. ICCS was based on the premise that preparing students for citizenship involves helping them develop relevant knowledge and understanding and form positive attitudes toward being a citizen and participating in activities related to civics and citizenship. These notions were elaborated in the ICCS assessment framework (Schulz, Fraillon, Ainley, Losito, & Kerr, 2008). Regional contexts are important aspects of civic and citizenship education because they help us understand how people are differentially influenced to undertake their roles as citizens. Along with its regional module for Europe, ICCS included regional instruments for Asia and Latin America to supplement the data obtained from the international survey. This report from ICCS focuses on the 24 countries that participated in the study’s European regional module. It...
Why (and How) Schools Should Engage in Political Education
Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis, 2023
To many people, the idea of a state-organized political education evokes indoctrination. Authoritarian states wanting to secure the obedience of their citizens indeed have a strong incentive to shape their political beliefs, and this is often what political education organized by public authorities has looked like in the past and may look like nowadays. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that a form of publicly organized political education is necessary in democratic contexts. Understood as the attempt by a political community to choose its laws while respecting the equal standing of each citizen, democracy can only succeed if citizens understand what is at stake in the decisions they have to make, are sufficiently informed about the options available to them, and show respect and concern for their fellow citizens. These democratic competencies are not innate. Currently, they are acquired mainly through family education and informal interactions in the private and professional spheres of people’s lives. My main claim in this article is that, in contexts of sufficient political pluralism, political education should more firmly be taken in charge by primary and secondary schools because it is an important and demanding collective good, unlikely to be appropriately secured without state intervention.
Collecting School and Teacher Data in International Civic and Citizenship Study
2008
Characteristics of the school context and its impact on the development of students' knowledge, as well as their dispositions and competencies in relation to their roles as citizens, are especially important for a study of civics and citizenship education. The school in itself represents both the principal institution in which young people are directly involved and, at the same time, the foremost community in which they can actively participate.